Believe in the Cards
by YungQ94
Summary: Rose, a fortune telling gypsy who can look into the future for 15 euros. Regular patrons are accepted of course but what if the patrons were the entire Street Fighter cast? Read on to find out each and every one of the fighter's hilarious fortunes. Rated Teen for mild language and mild suggestive themes
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In the city of Genoa, Italy, the scenery settles on a busy street filled with shops and people hustling to their next destination. A particular shop that seems to be filled with mystery and the unknown stood in the center of the complex daring anyone to enter. Welcome to Tarot Fortune, Rose's own fortune telling shop to tell the customer their own near future destiny; of course for a fair price of 15 euros.

Normally, Rose told the fortune to her fellow countrymen and tourists about their near future fates. She told them about love, lose or warned them from making a crucial mistake. No matter the fortune, Rose was always certain to tell her customers the truth.

Business was steady and stable which was more than enough to keep Rose afloat. However, it was when the World Warriors started to frequently visit Rose's shop that she began to become more popular. The once peaceful fortune telling shop in the center of the complex was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

\~/\~/

Rose stepped out of her shop dressed in her normal attire of her red evening gown with gold buttons, her violet leotard and leggings and familiar golden scarf. Hanging the "Open" sign on her door, she smiled at the city's bustling scenery as it was an hour before noon and most of the citizens were already hurrying back and forth to their next location. Stepping back into the shop, Rose grabbed her warm tea off the counter and sat at the only round wooden table in the shop and waited for her first customer of the day.

The shop itself acted both a workplace and a home for the tarot card fortune teller which gave a homely feeling to both her customers and herself. She had several books lying around, a kitchen to the left of her and an analog clock hung on the wall over the door telling her that it was now 11:00.

"Today shall be a good day, that I can tell," Rose stated as she sipped on her tea.

Moments after her confident statement, Rose heard the door open and greeted her customer. It wasn't until she recognized the person that she dropped her tea cup out of pure shock. Standing in the doorway was a tall muscular man wearing a white mask displaying his hazel eyes with chocolate brown hair in a braid, a snake tattoo coiled around his upper body, purple and gold matador pants and a red sash tied onto his waist. There was no mistaking it: Shadaloo's own Spanish Assassin was in Rose's fortune telling shop.

Her first action of dealing with such an encounter was to panic. Her mind rushed in a frenzy to figure out why such a dangerous criminal would arrive at her home/shop when she never publicly displayed her address. The only action she thought best to deal with such a surprising encounter was to fight and ask questions later.

"I don't know how you found this place but I assure you that you will not defeat me so easily, " Rose threaten as she told and got into her fighting stance.

Vega on the other hand dismissed her stance with a wave and merely sat down at the table leaving the fortune teller puzzled. In another baffling action, Vega took off his mask to leave his lean, handsome face which left Rose ultimately flustered from his gorgeousness.

"Sit down you foolish wench." Casually runs his hands through his hair to emphasize the insult, I guess. "If I had wanted you dead I would have killed you ages ago. All I need is my fortunate so do not waste my time."

Rose was completely baffled to say the least. One of Shadaloo's top enforcers came all the way to Italy just to have his fortune read? Rose should have tried her best to turn him away yet she was rather interested on what was troubling the Spanish ninja. Proceeding with extreme caution, Rose sat across from Vega.

"Ok, er Vega? May I call you Vega?"

"Of course, I see no point in telling you my beautiful name to such a base woman."

Rose's eye twitch in a flash of anger; the insults were unnecessary and would take some getting use too.

"Right. Well what troubles you, Vega?"

Vega pursed his lips in a thoughtful manner and propped his head onto his head. "Well after going to the beautiful city of Venice to kill an Italian ambassador not to long ago, I came under heavy fire and barely made it out alive."

"You… you killed one of our ambassadors?"

"Well that's what I do you fool. Anyway he was trying to steal from Shadaloo so Bison sent me but none of that is important." Lifting his head to use his hand, he picked up his infamous white mask and showed it to Rose. "Do you see the damage to my mask?"

At first Rose saw nothing until she saw a medium sized horizontal groove cross under the eye sockets. Obviously it was either a bullet or knife marking that damaged the mask.

"Yes what of it?"

"Well as I already told you I was under heavy fire when I went to assassinate the bastard and a stray bullet marked my mask as I was fleeing. It wasn't until later when I made it back to my hotel that I had my epiphany."

Rose secretly hoped that it was to stop killing and to stop admit murders to random strangers.

"I have damaged many masks before but, what if I had actually damaged my face? Like permanently damaged my divine face? That is when I needed to know something completely dire from someone of your profession." For the first time of the session, Vega looked Rose in the eye in a completely serious way that came of as sexy worrisome. "Will I ever damage my face permanently?"

Rose blinked once and breathed a sigh of relief. She had no idea why, but she had felt that Vega wanted to know when he would acquire ultimate power or something equally dangerous. Thankfully it was nothing but an attempt to protect his vainness.

Considering that she had a request to fulfill, Rose levitated her nearby deck of cards off the counter and into her hands (a little trick she did to let the customer know that she was the real deal). The ritual began with her levitating all of the cards into a circle over her head as she led her arms up and began chanting in Latin. The cards themselves spun faster and Rose chanted equally faster until she finished the chant stopping the cards to return them to its original stacked deck. She immediately picked up the first tarot card and frown. Vega was definitely not going to enjoy this fortune.

"Well Mr. Vega-"

"Vega."

Rose coughed and figured that it was best to just get this over with as quickly as possible. "Well, **Vega**, you will damage your face in the near future. I am sorry if this affects you greatly."

A moment passed until Vega spoke again. "How soon?"

This was the part where Rose demonstrated her firm side to customers. Shadaloo assassin or not, business was business.

"I'm sorry Vega but that will be an extra 15 euros for another fortune."

Immediately after stating her business policy, Vega dropped a brief case onto the table and opened it to reveal rows of euros.

"How soon?"

Rose was once again confused by Vega's action as she clearly stated that it was only 15 euros for another fortune. She was going to tell him again until she remembered that she really wanted that cherry wine set three blocks away…

Rose picked up the second card of the deck and told Vega his fortune.

"Three years from now. The card doesn't say exactly how you are injured but it will be exactly three years until then."

Vega looked down and frowned as he stood up from the table. "Damn. Then I must make strong preparations in order to prevent such an occurrence."

"I would advise from preventing your fate, Vega. Stronger repercussions will occur if you try to prevent your already known fate. It is best to hope that your injury will not be completely serious and just a small facial scar."

Vega took a moment to consider the gypsy's word and shrugged. "Time will tell I suppose." He picked up his mask and placed it on his face as he headed for the door. "I suppose I should thank you gypsy, your words have put me at ease for the time being."

"You're welcome?" As Vega opened the door, Rose remembered a crucial point in this entire encounter. "Wait! How did you know where to find me?"

"Oh that's easy: I saw you leave a wine shop with a bag of beard and a bottle of Cheri 74' on the night I was escaping from ambassador's mansion and decided to follow you. Considering that you read fortunes for a living, I decided it was best to get mine read as soon as you opened shop."

Rose was left silent at Vega's testimonial. Clearly his skills as a ninja were top notch to the full degree.

"By the way, you should cut down on the garlic beard my dear. It all goes to your already colossal thighs." Rose couldn't see it but she knew for a fact that he was smirking under that mask of his.

As soon as the Spaniard left her shop, Rose tried her best to channel her anger into something to avoid taking the insult personally. As she clenched her fist and glowed her fist its light blue aura, Rose murmured to herself,

"I should have been the one to damage his dumb handsome face."

\~/\~/

Fortunately for Rose, her next client was a friendlier, more familiar face she recognized from the tournament. World renown business man and All-American champion Ken Masters appeared at Rose's shop in a pink polo, crème colored khaki pants and brown shoes. Again, Rose found herself curious as to why such a character was in her shop at 2:41 pm.

"Hey!" Ken greeted the violet haired gypsy.

"Hello Mr. Masters, Ryu has told me a great deal about you."

"Please call me Ken," he stated with a smile before he continued. "Ya know Ryu told me about you as well, told me that you could predict the future with tarot cards. Is that true?"

"Why yes it is Ken. For a standard fee of 15 euros I will tell any fortune you desire: truthfully of course."

"That's great!" Beaming a charming smile, the American pulled out the 15 euros that was needed for the ritual and set it on the table.

Rose took the pay and placed it in a money box under the table and began her business.

"What is your need to look into the future today, Ken?"

"Well it's about my newborn Mel Masters. Actually would you like to see him?" Ken asked excitedly.

"Of course! I just love to see children when their so young."

Ken grabbed his wallet from his pocket and produced a picture of a small baby wrapped in a bundle sleeping soundly in a hospital bed. Rose held her hand to her cheek and awed at the baby in the picture.

"He's so cute!"

"Yeah that seems to be the general opinion of my boy, hehe." Ken put the picture away and put his wallet back into his pocket. "Anyway I came here today just to make sure his future was stable. I didn't want him to encounter a horrible fortune or anything so yeah: can you help me out?"

"What a noble father. Alright that seems simple enough; please wait a moment so that I may be able to tell you're fortune."

Rose repeats the process from earlier with the whole card spinning and such cause the author doesn't feel like writing that out again. Once the cards settled back onto the table she picked up the first card of the deck and frowned. Hard.

"Uh-oh that doesn't look good." Ken said worriedly.

"Ummm, well not particularly bad per say. It's not deathly bad or horribly bad but its rather… surprising."

"Oh, well what's the fortune?"

"…" This was a rather difficult thing to discuss with the client sitting across from her table; especially when it came to his son nonetheless. It was best to soften the news to the American to the best of her abilities.

"Mr.-, Ken, how do you feel about people dating the same sex?"

Ken arched a confused eyebrow but answered the question regardless of its obscurity. "It's no problem with me. People are people after all."

"That's good to hear Ken because you're son… is going to go through a bit of a… well homosexual phase at some point in his life…"

The air went dead silent as Ken lost all muscle to his jaw as his mouth dropped open.

"A… homosexual phase?"

"Yes."

"Like as in gay?"

"Yes."

Ken frowned and looked completely baffled at the gypsy across from him. When the thought of his son going through a gay phase finally hit home in his brain, Ken raised his hands to clench his blond hair and screamed at the ceiling thoroughly scaring Rose.

"No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Like a feral animal, Ken pointed at Rose and began barking orders at the scared Italian. "Check it again!"

"What? No! Ken there's no-"

"That's Mr. Masters to you!"

Rose defensively held her hands up in case the American champion was feeling upper cutting happy. "Mr. Masters there is no need for me to redo the process again. Once I have completed the ritual it is only coherent to your fate and no one else's. This is your son's fortune, Mr. Masters."

"Awwww no! How!? Why me!?" Ken sat down and grimaced at the gypsy. "How long will this, 'phase', be?"

"Well that's actually another fortunate entirely so an extra 15 euros is req-"

Ken cut her off by slamming a black suitcase on the table and ushered her to continue with a single determined look. Rose was going to question the whereabouts of the suitcase, but who was going to question a case full of money?

Rose drew the next card in her deck and looked slightly relieved. "Well it seems you're son's phase will last for 3 years when he has hit the peak of his adolescent age."

"So it'll start when Mel's 16?"

Ken seemed to ponder something before asking his next question. "Will it be one single partner or multiple?"

Rose was about to repeat her policy then remembered the briefcase on the table. She drew a third card and paused at the result of the card.

"… Multiple."

With hearing the final verdict, Ken slumped back in his chair in total shock. This was the fate of Mel Masters? Mr. Masters steadied his weak body on the wooden table and rose from his seat. He calmly turned around and opened the door.

"If that's Mel's fate, then I'll still support him no matter what."

With that final statement, ken Masters closed the door and out into the Italian afternoon a confused and altered man. Despite his peculiar fortune, Ken remained a good father in Rose's eyes.

\~/\~/

The clock displayed 5:13 pm as the shop's closing hours were closely approaching soon. Rose had had quite enough of the surprises for today with both Vega and Ken Masters that she was thankful for the two other normal clients that came to her shop earlier. However, her most bizarre client and fortune of the day walked in at 5:15 pm with 45 minutes till closing time.

His appearance was something that the average person was not use to seeing sat all. His biggest main feature was his vibrant green skin and equally long, bright orange hair while wearing his tattered brown shorts. If she remembered correctly, Blanka fought like a wild animal but acted like a nice young man to those he didn't view as a threat. Rose was not upset in his appearance in the slightest yet she was rather curious on what brought him here to her shop today.

"Hello Ms. Fortune Telling Lady!" Blanka greeted with great enthusiasm.

"Oh it's just Rose my dear friend." How adorable. "Please have a seat." As instructed, Blanka hopped onto the chair and stayed in that position with his knees close to his chest. "Alright then, heh, what can I do for you today Blanka?"

"Well Ms. Rose, my mama's birthday is in a few days and I wanted to give her the best birthday present ever! Use my prize money from the recent tournament I fought in, I thought that I could see into the future to see what my mama wanted."

Rose couldn't help but to feel delighted to hear Blanka's words as she smiled while putting a hand to her cheek. "How considerate of you Blanka: alright I'll help you with your problem. I just need 15 euros from you to begin."

Blanka let out an animalistic cheer and placed his hands into his pocket to pull out the money. He set the euros down and also a banana which he immediately picked back up. Embarrassed at his mistake, Blanka chuckled and scratched the back of his head making Rose laugh once more. With the payment achieved, Rose took the money and began the ritual once more. Afterwards she took the first card from the deck, look at it and had a look of sheer mortification etched on her face.

Blanka curiously asked Rose, "Is everything alright?"

"I... I don't know how to put this but um… wow." This was one uncomfortable subject to talk about. Rose was not all too sure if Blanka could handle the truth about his mother's wishes. Regardless she had to tell the truth meaning that the best option was to take it slow with the green jungle man.

"Ok Blanka do you know what the birds and the bees are correct?"

"Yes I do! Mama said when a man and a woman-"

"Ok that's great! Then let me just say this: when a woman and an object are…" Love certainly wasn't the word for such activities. Rose choose to rephrase her sentence with, "When a woman doesn't necessarily want the love of a man she relies on an object for her… needs."

"Object?"

"Yes a…" Rose was completely red at this point. "A… a sex toy."

A moment of silence fell onto the two as Rose surely thought that Blanka was going to freak out just like Ken had done earlier that day. Surprisingly though, Blanka continued without missing a beat in his questions.

"Ok what kind of toy?"

"…" Rose looked back at the card in her hand and went a higher shade of red. "Well, um, it's the kind of toy shaped after a male's gentiles."

"Genna what?"

"A man's…" rose pressed her fingers to her temples and begged to know why she had to be the one to tell the innocent Blanka. Rose was able to force out the reply by saying, "A man's penis."

Blanka thought for a moment for he snapped his fingers. "Oh! So mama wants that sort of thing." Blanka got off the chair and walked towards the door. "If that's what mama wants then I'll get it for her no matter what. First I gotta find a store that sells a toy penis first then I'll buy her the best one there! Thank you Rose, bye!"

After Blanka left, rose sat there puzzled at the events of that day. In a spilt second, Rose opened a cabinet behind her that held her Cheri '74, opened the bottle with her soul power and drank straight from the bottle. After taking a breath, Rose wiped her mouth with her arm and slumped on the table.

"What a horrible day. This was the worse day by far."

Of course, Rose had no idea that this was only the beginning of her misfortunes.

Author's Note - Thanks for reading. This is my little break from my Tekken fic and my attempt at Street Fighter comedy. I'll try to update frequently but no promises of course. If you guys want you can suggest the next character to have their fortune read :D.


	2. Chapter 2

Believe in the Cards Chapter 2

It had been three days since Rose's bizarre fortune telling session with the infamous world warriors. Fortunately for herself and her mental state, Rose was back into her regular routine of working with regular people. A few business men here, an older woman there; anyone who wasn't a fighter was welcoming in Rose's eyes. Unfortunately for Rose, the bizarre events were about to repeat itself over again when her door was explosively kicked open.

The figure that startled the poor violent haired gypsy was none other than part time world warrior and full time musician Dee Jay. The Jamaican wore his casual attire of an orange hoodie, black sweatpants with the 'MAXIMUM' displayed on the legs of the pants and a orange beanie to cover his scalp. Rose had recognized the fighter from beating him in one of the world tournaments and the end result was Dee jay giving her a copy of his CD (he was still smiling after he lost by the way). The music was enjoyable, matter of fact he was an exquisite musician. The musician was smiling as usual, yet his worrisome speech threw her off like her now broken door.

"Ahhh Fortune Telling Woman! I really need ya to help me wit' t'e future!" Deejay cried as he skillfully spun the chair under his index finger before sitting down. Again It was hard to tell for Rose if the musician was being cocky or in a pinch.

"Well Deejay I'm sure we can settle whatever problem you're dealing with. I just need you to calm down and tell me what worries you about your future."

"Ok. Well Deejay is a big time celebrity with the music that makes the people move to the rhythm but now I got's a big problem with my rhyme. I don't have it anymore!"

"Hmm. It seems you've lost motivation or perhaps ran out of material to work make music. I would suggest-" While Rose was trying to comprehend the musician's problem, Deejay took a bag of cannabis out of his left pocket and rolling papers in his other pocket and places the contents onto the table. "Are you putting marijuana on my table!?"

"Yeah mon. It helps me think and make my music." I'm not kidding you when I say Deejay rolls the blunt in a NASCAR pit stop time of 10.7 seconds. "Anyway I'm listenin' to ya whole heartily baby. Oh I forgot my lighter, mind hooking me up, baby?"

In a fit of disgust, Rose smacks the blunt out of Deejay's mouth and points to a sign in the top corner of the shop that reads, 'No Smoking!' "There is absolutely no smoking in this shop. That includes cannabis Mr. Deejay."

Deejay looked perplexed (though you couldn't tell through his huge smile) and asked, "But it's legal to smoke here in Italy, what's the deal mon?"

"That's because winners don't do drugs Deejay; well at least not in my shop." Rose blew a breath of frustration and decided to continue with this fighter's business before she threw him out. "Despite you causing me such trouble I will help you. Now please, be quiet as I look into your future."

Like a reuse animation from a previous episode, Rose levitates the cards into a circle to spin above her head as she performs the ritual. She finishes the display as the cards return to its original stacked form allowing her to pick up the first tarot card from the pile.

Rose examined the card and appeared to be relieved at the fortune. "Well Deejay, your feel for the rhythm will return when a foreign language sings to you."

For the first time since Deejay entered the shop, he stopped smiling and began to tap his chin in thought. Having come up with a decent plan, his smile returned and he stood up in excitement. "I got it! I'll travel the world and listen to different songs in foreign languages, collab with the artists and make one huge funky album. Ohhhhhh Fortune Woman ya helped me oh so much!"

Unable to control his happiness, Deejay scooped the seated Rose into a bear crushing hug surprising the violet haired gypsy. Setting her back down, Deejay grabbed the discarded blunt and began to head for the door whistling a cheery tune.

Rose straighten out her outfit glad she was able to help the Jamaican musician but felt like she was forgetting something. … Her payment!

"Excuse me but you still owe me fifteen euros. Not to mention you owe extra for breaking my door earlier as well."

"Oh right, right. Well hold on while I get the payment from my scooter." True to his word, Deejay went out the lopsided door and came back in a minute to give Rose a smooth black suitcase (much to her enjoyment). "I think this will cover it baby. Thanks for all your help again but I gotta go. The rhythm is calling me!"

Deejay left out the shop ready to travel the world for other artists beautiful singing voices. He waved as he drove off on a rented motor scooter as Rose waved back at the always smiling musician. Rose closed her lopsided door and sat the briefcase on the table smiling as she unclicked both buttons on the black object. However, when the top lid opened, it revealed several rows of cannabis and one huge gas orange lighter vertically labeled 'MAXIMUM' on the front.

Rose just stared at it without realizing that she was gripping the case extremely hard that it was shaking. Not only had she not gotten paid but now she had drugs in her own shop with absolutely no use for their presence. Her hands started to glow with her aura as the anger boiled in her mind until a random thought crossed her mind.

'Why not sell it.'

Her glowing aura stopped as she began to ponder the thought. However, in a fit of embarrassment, she closed the briefcase shut, tossed it on the floor and stomped upstairs to get a bottle of 72' Cheri.

"Winners don't sell drugs neither," Rose muttered under her breath.

\~/\~/

Least to say, Rose was definitely upset about the whole ordeal with the musician that it had left her in a very agitated mood. She considered closing shop early if she had to keep looking at the crooked doorway for a second longer. Having made up her mind, Rose strode over to the adjacent door intending to turn her wooden OPEN sign over to the CLOSE sign on the back. As she opened the door however, she was met with the sun blocked out by a huge cloaked giant. Confused at her sudden ordeal, the gypsy looked up and was met with a scowl and an eye patch.

"Tell me, are you the fortune teller who participated in the world tournament?" Commanded the familiar baritone King of Muay Thai Sagat.

Under his intimated glare, Rose lost the color in her skin instantly.

"W-Why ye-yes I am. How may I-"

The Thailand giant did not wait for Rose's consent before he started to walk into the shop closing the door behind him. 'Oh God this is it,' Rose mentally shouted as Sagat stood within her shop still glooming over her. 'Vega was just surveillance. Bison sent the true enforcer this time!' Rose was trying her hardest to rationalize her options on fighting the Muay Thai King that she did not notice that Sagat walked right past her and sat down at the wooden table that was much too small for a man his size.

"How long do you plan to keep me waiting woman!?" Sagat barked at the baffled Rose.

Shaken out of her stupor, the violet haired woman cautiously returned to the table both perplexed and terrified at the reasons as to why Sagat would enter her shop.

She supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask considering that it was her living after all. "So Mr… Sagat?"

The King crossed his arms and let out a dissatisfied grunt at Rose's sentence. "You may call me Sagat. No need for such worthless formalities."

"Okay. Well Sagat what is it that you wish to see in your future?"

"Hmm. For as long as I was I remember as the Muay Thai King, I was invincible to all men who stepped in the ring. I was unstoppable until the man named Ryu defeated me and left me a reminder. He left me a burning scar to remind me that I was still just a man. It was then that I set off on my journey…"

Normally when customers come to her fortune telling shop they usually explain the problem within five minutes or less. Sagat, nevertheless, decided to share with the gypsy his entire life story about his need for vengeance and joining Shadoloo for an entire 20 minutes. Her extreme nervousness had sizzled down to an unforsaken sense of boredom. On the twenty first minute of the story, Rose was ready to crash into the table face first and fall asleep on the spot.

Sagat continued to ramble on until an interesting tidbit came up. "It was then after multiple battles with various fighters is when I learned that there was much more to the fight than the fight itself. I set out on my journey to learn more about the fight. I even let that whelp Dan Hibki win against me to experience a loss once more."

Rose snapped out of her drowsy state and peered at Sagat as if he had regrown his eye back.

"Did you say that you loss against Dan Hibki?"

"Yes I did. I lost to gain a new perspective on fighting."

At first she only looked at Sagat with a blank face showcasing no emotion. Then she felt her lip curl upwards and before she could control herself she immediately burst into a full fit of laughter. Sagat on the other hand sat in the chair non-verbally sending death threats at the laughing gypsy with his eyes.

In between laughing breathes Rose said, "Hahahahhaha! Oh… hahah… you lost to Dan Hibki hehehehehe! No one… Hahaha… loses to Dan Hibki! Not even on purpose hahahahahahahaha!"

Rose was too busy busting a gut to notice the Thailand giant raise his fist and forcefully slam it onto the wooden table just enough to scare Rose out of her laughing fit.

"Damnit woman! You dare laugh at me!? If you I even hear you attempt to even whimper another jest I will rip you in half!"

The vicious threat immediately made the fortune teller shut her mouth in fear. Sagat continued once he realized that Rose was not going to test him on his words. "I suppose I should finish and state my business. I seek your powers to tell me of what I will lose next. As a king, I must prepare for the next great loss so that I may always be in control."

Taking the opportunity to end the very intimidating session, Rose cautiously nodded and began the ritual with her tarot cards. Once the deck spun at its fastest speed, the cards settled back into its original position. Rose picked up the first card of the deck and nearly burst out into laughter again. However, she was able to catch her giggle by biting on her lip to suppress the urge and did her absolute best to read the card normally.

"Sagat it seems that your next great lost will be pffft… your genitals." Sagat's single eye expanded in surprise at the shocking news. Rose continued with her fortune as she unrelentingly bit her lip. "A doctor will perform a procedure to clip off a part of your reproductive glands in order to check your health. It is a normal medical method to check a man's health and to prevent any diseases. It may hurt a little considering that it is a sensitive spot after all."

After hearing those words, Sagat slowly traced his scar over his chest almost remembering the pain from that day he lost to his true rival.

Rose picked up on the motion and pressed forward. "It shouldn't be as painful as your scar. Or-" Rose coughed into her hand to sneak out a laugh as she mentally said, 'Or that time you lost to Dan Hibiki!"

As Rose mentally laughed at her own joke, the King slammed his hand onto the table and stood up. Rose feared for her life thinking that he had heard her nonverbal giggles but was relived to find the man raise his hand to reveal 15 euros. Sagat turned his back and began to walk out of the shop.

"Your words do not bring me at ease yet I suppose it is better than Bison invading my country. I will be sure to train my pain tolerance to defeat this challenge. Farewell, gypsy."

With his finally statement, Sagat left the shop for good to prepare for his next battle. Giving it a solid minute before doing anything else, Rose breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled at the King of Muay Thai's situation.

\~/\~/

Around 5:30 the shop's closing hours seemed to trickle in slow motion against the fortune teller's better wishes. The day was not kind to her considering that she had to deal with a non-paying customer, a long winded hostile Thai man and finally a horrible two hour drought with Rose being left with nothing but her thoughts. Just thinking about her close call with death with Sagat made Rose want to close down shop and take a well-deserved bubble bath. In fact, that was what she was going to do this instant.

Getting up from her wooden table, Rose went to the door to switch the sign from 'Open' to 'Close'. After opening the door, she felt a rush of wind pass by her just as she switched the sign over. Looking back into her own store, Rose saw an old man in a purple Chinese outfit with black pants with his hands put behind his back. As the man turned around, she recognized the man to be Gen, a very skillful master of Kung Fu who she had seen enter the tournament a handful of times.

Her main question was how he had gotten inside the shop without her noticing. She was certain that she didn't see anyone when she opened the door. Regardless of her questions, Gen stood between her and her bubble bath. Sitting down at the table along with her guest, Rose prepared herself for the worst.

"Well, what can I do for you?"

The man stroked his beard as his white pupils seemed to gaze past the violet-haired woman. "I will be straight with you child. I have lived for what seemed like four lifetimes. I have fought and killed yet I am nowhere near fighting my true battle with an opponent that is truly worthy to make me fight to the death."

Rose rolled her eyes and could predict his future without using the cards. "So you wish to know when you will fight that worthy opponent?" Rose asked uninterested.

"Incorrect."

What? She read that wrong?

"I wish to win the lottery."

This… this was certainly unsuspected. "The lottery?"

"Yes. I have had my chance to fight the demon himself named Akuma yet he had let me live claiming that I was too ill to make it a real fight. Resigned to my fate, I sought other ways to pass the time until I could challenge that demon again. Cooking challenges, ping pong tournaments and even travelling the world was not enough. So here I am ready to try my hand at chance but of course with a little assistance. My time may be short, but not short enough to win some big money."

Rose had situations like this before involving a customer wanting to know how to get rich quick. She normally turned them down yet she was way beyond tried to even deal with the older man's complaints. Not to mention that his non-pupil white eyes were beginning to creep her out.

"If that is your wish then I will assist."

After Rose's ritual, she picked up the first card and read off its contents. The fortune itself held six questions that only Gen could answer since it was related to his life. How many women had he been with? How many times did he have a close encounter with death? How many times had he escaped the authorities? How many times had he burnt his food? How many times has he travelled the world? How many times has he taken a life?

Once Rose finished the questions, Gen paused and stroked his beard in deep thought. Having seemingly reflecting on his life in a mere few moments, Gen answered each question with a number.

"14, 6, 27, 4, 17 and 36. No wait. Make that 37."

Rose briefly paused for a minute. "That was… oddly precise."

"Of course. A man of my caliber must remember every detail."

"Those seem extremely accurate. Especially the last one."

"Whether it is life or death, I remember it all. Although, I wouldn't mind making that first number higher," Gen said with a hint of a sideways smile.

Rose on the other hand kept a strong poker face about her.

"Oh. Well I guess that would have worked if I was 30 years younger. Oh well." Getting up from the table, Gen placed 15 euros on the table and made his exit.

It was bad enough to get stiffed on 15 euros, having a lopsided door and threatened by a Shadaloo enforcer, but getting hit on by an ancient old man such as Gen was a new low for the gypsy. Rose leaned her upper body onto the table and groaned into her arms.

Rose was about to thank any sort of deity for the day being over yet her door was kicked in again by the rowdy musician Deejay scaring Rose out of her seat.

"Sorry baby but I had to run and get ma' stash back! Can't make my sweet rhymes without me product."

The violet-haired woman was flustered as she took a second to recognize the musician. After realizing who it was, Rose furiously hurled the brief case by the counter with her Soul power straight at Deejay who caught it with his body making him slight back a few inches.

"Whew! I like me a girl who can throw a briefcase!"

"Save it!" Rose stood up from her chair and pointed at the musician. "Payment! Now! Please!"

"Riiiight I gotcha baby." Deejay reached into his pocket and tossed Rose a small stack of euro bills onto the table. "That should cover the door and ma fee, gal. Now that my bet has been paid, I'm off to take me a flight!"

Deejay closed the excitingly closed the door making the lopsided door practically hanging off its hinges. Rose faintly heard her sign fall to the ground on the other side before she groaned and buried her head into her arms.


End file.
